After a few false starts, I finally get around to writing up something approximating a review for “NEO JAPONISM’s new album” that would only have been accurate if I’d waited a minute to include the second album released a mere week later, and then subsequently two additional tracks that appear on neither album but did get MVs. Correct — I waited myself into complete uncertainty as to what or when anything would happen, and then lost impetus for the project. But now that I think we’re safe from any extra releases, why not dig in and actually talk about this stuff? Continue reading →
Oh heck yeah, this is exactly what I was waiting for — it didn’t take long for KAQRIYOTERROR to go from announcing a new album to promoting the sucker. In true Codomomental fashion, the official window is two hours, and we immediately dishonor that.
I think a lot of people have been generally optimistic, albeit somewhat apprehensive to totally give in, when it comes to New BiS. I’ve personally been very willing to embrace them on their own terms (I dig the music quite a bit, after all), though whether I could always take them seriously as a thing called “BiS” has nagged at me. And so far, the release of ANTi CONFORMiST SUPERSTAR has followed that pattern perfectly, with perfectly solid music that I’d happily accept from just about any other idol, but this weird feeling that it’s just not BiS.
And then today, to commemorate the release of the EP, they drop the “full, 5-hour version” of the MV for “CURTAiN CALL”, which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s five hours (well, like 5:02:22) of “CURTAiN CALL” on loop, interminably repeated until the arbitrarily selected interval of time had been reached, the members singing and dancing with surprisingly little flagging the entire time. Just:
Hit play, then mark the point at which you get tired of the song … and then imagine how the BiS members felt at the same time
Imagine being WACK right now. Just a few short years ago, your entire company consisted of an upstart tribute project of a legacy brand that had inadvertently spawned a whole subculture within a subculture, and while it was probably clear to everybody involved that this project would have success at the very least on paper, not even Watanabe’s own fairy godmother would have put money on him sitting at the top of a giant-ass pile of money here in the Year of Pour Lui 2020, with project after project hitting all the right notes and doing things that chika idols* aren’t supposed to do.
And at the base and peak of it all sits BiSH, whose LETTERS EP continues a string of technically quite good releases from the group who once dressed in rags and got kicked out of TIF but are now proper headliners with all the slick support of any of the industry giants they were once created in part to overcome. I personally haven’t been as big a fan of their music since THE GUERILLA BiSH felt like a step down from the heady success of GiANT KiLLERS, but I nonetheless support the group and its members with the same doe-eyed fan energy as ever. Hence it’s been somewhat bittersweet to see WACK group after WACK group lap them creatively over the past few years. See, for instance, the newest album from BiS!
But because this is apparently the summer of WACK, BiSH couldn’t just let LETTERS stand on a single MV release, and yesterday they gave us one of the very best things they’ve ever done: Continue reading →
We’re in a new age – an age where we’re finally able to listen to new BiS releases and the good folks at WACK and Revolver Records have blessed us with an early streaming release!
Did I make that up? I made that up. The year that is 2020 is a lot of things, and one of them definitely is a month-to-month competition to see how much worse the world can get (current trend: holding!), but what I refer to here is simply a narrative device, not an actual contest, unless your take on idol this year as well can be viewed through the same kind of lens. The real bloodbath of graduations was last year, of course, though we’ve had our share. ANYWAY, the point is, title only, not actual thing.
With which I now segue to this weekend’s entry from BURST GIRL from their “story” record, which is … look, I took a few months off, came back, and nothing made sense anymore. I’m not sure of the chronology because at least some of it pre-dates my de-cocooning myself, but if I were only to have heard the “Against the drain” track, I’d be like, oh how neat and cool that BURST GIRL has graduated to melodic easycore or, I dare say, lifting verse material straight from NOFX. HOWEVER, whether it’s because BOSS idol-retired or because Waka’s back and has clothing to sell or even just because it’s 2020, the punk rockin’est of all punk rockin’ idol units has taken on a different character for this release. And Saturday morning has us all seeing this for the first time:
Today was a good day for fans of the blue, melancholic idol unit of Codomomental. While they announced their third album and its release dans (August 26!) a while back, they only just released its title, paradox soar, and its track list.
The new studio album contains five new songs, their recent singles as well as the solo songs of all members. Hue and Existence Metaphysical were previously released on the limited edition of exFallen, but have been re-recorded for this album.
The first track of the album was granted an MV, and it’s great! So, let’s talk Wish/~
Ah, Kimi to Boku no Kakumei … I’m trying to think if I’ve ever blogged a single post or spared more than a loose thought in their direction. I mean this not as shade, of course, just as a simple acknowledgement. Their first public forays didn’t exactly grab me, you know? I can dig on happy-ass tradol all day long when the mood strikes (and let the record show that I was listening to old Sakura Gakuin albums just this past week), but it’s far less interesting to me than rock ’em sock ’em full-on grindol brutality. I mean, that’s kind of the point of the whole website.
But anyway! Nice group, but not really exciting to me. I probably would have skipped right over their latest MV, but a quick Twitter cruise yesterday showed them popping up from IdolOnChaos, and the combination was fun to me so I went for it, and brother was I about to rewarded:
MERRY BAD END has been invited to perform as the featured artist in the latest installment of streaming music and arts event, Digital Scene.
Digital Scene is the brainchild of Baltimore-based OTS Productions and Montgomery Drive. As they describe it: “The concept behind Digital Scene is to bring people together by virtual collaboration from around the world. We strive to present different experiences with each edition of the series.” Version 4.0 featuring MERRY BAD END will be streaming on Twitch TV next Friday, July 24th at 8:00 pm EST (9:00 am JST). Continue reading →
